USA > Pennsylvania > Early history of western Pennsylvania, and of the West, and of western expeditions and campaigns, from MDCCLIV to MDCCCXXXIII > Part 12
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A large portion of the regular troops had now fired away their ammu- nition, in an irregular manner, at their own friends, and ran off, leaving to the enemy the artillery, ammunition and stores. Some of them did not stop until they reached Dunbar's camp, thirty six miles distant. (1) Sixty-four out of eighty five officers, and one half of the privates were killed or wounded. Every field officer, and every one on horse-back, except Col. Washington, who had two horses killed under him, and four bullets through his coat, was either slain or carried from the field disabled by wounds, and no hope remained of saving any thing except
(1; Col. Orme's letter in Minutes of Council of Pa. July 24, 1755.
* Tho following is extracted from a letter from Colonel Orme, Aid-de- camp to General Braddock, to Governor Morris, dated Fort Cumberland, July 18, 1755 :
A list of the officers who were present, and of those killed and wounded in the action on the banks of the Monongahela, the 9th day of July. 1755.
STAFF-His Excellency Edward Braddock, Esq., General and Commander of all his Majesty's forces in North America, died of his wounds; Robert Orme, Esq., wounded ; Robert Morris, Esq., wounded; George Washington, Esq .- these three were Aid-de-camps. William Shirley, Esq., Secretary, killed ; Sir John St. Clair, Deputy Quarter- Master General, wounded ; Ma- thew Leslie, gent., assistant to the Quarter Master General, wounded ; Fran- cis Halket, Major of Brigade.
FORTY-FOURTH REGIMENT-Sir Peter Halket, Colonel, killed; Lieut. Col. Gage, slightly wounded; Capt. Tatton, killed; Capt. Hobson; Capt. Beck- worth; Capt. Gethins, killed; Lieut. Fauleonier; Lieut. Little, wounded; Lieut . Baley; Lieut. Dunbar, wounded; Lieut. Pottenger; Lieut. Halket, killed; Lieut. Freeby, wounded; Lieut. Allen, killed; Lieut. Simpson, wounded; Lieut. Lock, wounded ; Disney, wounded; Kenedy, wounded; Townsend, killed; Preston ; Nartlow, killed ; Pennington, wounded.
FORTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT-Lient. Col. Burton, wounded ; Major Sparks, slightly wounded; Capt. Dobson; Capt. Cholmely, killed; Capt. Bowyer, wounded; Capt. Ross, wounded; Capt. Lieut. Morris ; Barbut, wounded ; Walsham, wounded; Crimble, killed ; Wideman, killed; Hausard, killed ; Gladwin, wounded ; Hathorn ; Edmeston, wounded ; Cope ; Brenton, killed ; Hart, killed; Montrisieur, wounded; Dunbar; Harrison; Cowhart; Mac Mul- len, wounded; Crow, wounded; Sterling, wounded.
ARTILLERY-Capt. Orde; Capt. Lieut. Smith, killed; Lieut. Buckhannon, wounded; Lieut. McCloud. wounded; Lieut. McMullen, wounded.
ENGINEERS-Peter McKeller, Esq., wounded; Robert Gordon, Esq., wound- ed; Williamson, Esq., wounded.
DETACHMENT OF SAILORS-Lieut. Spendelow, killed; Mr. Haynes, Midship- man; Mr. Talbot, Midshipman, killed; Capt. Stone, of Gen. Lascell's regi- ment, killed; Capt. Floyer, of Gen. Warburton's regiment, wounded.
INDEPENDENT COMPANIES OF MEW YORK-Capt. Gates, wounded; Lieut. Sumain, killed; Lieut. Miller; Lieutenant Howarth, of Captain Demerie's Indpendent Company, wounded ; Lieutenant Gray, of the same company, wounded.
VIRGINIA TROOPS-Capt. Stephens, wounded; Capt. Wagoner; Capt. Poul- ston, killed; Capt. Peronie, killed; Capt. Stewart; Hamilton, killed; Wood- ward; Wright, killed; Slitdorff, killed; Stuart, wounded; Wagoner, killed ; Mac Neale.
According to the most exact return we can as yet get, about 600 men were killed and wounded.
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by retreat. Washington then, at the head of the provincial troops, formed and covered the retreat, with great coolness and courage. (1)
The defeat was total, and the carnage great. Seven hundred and fourteen men were killed. The wagoners each took a horse from the teams, and rode off in great haste; the example was followed by the sol- diers ; the route became general ; all order was disregarded, and it was with difficulty that Gen. Braddock and other wounded officers, were brought off. (2) All the artillery, ammunition, baggage and stores, together with the dead and the dying, were left upon this fatal field, a prey to savage spoilers and the beasts of the forest. (3) All the secre- tary's papers, with all of the commanding general's orders, instructions' and correspondence, together with twenty-five thousand pounds in mo- ney, fell into the hands of the French. (4)
The fugitives not being pursued arrived at Dunbar's camp, and the panic they brought with them, instantly seized him and all his troops. And although he had now above one thousand men, and the enemy which had surprised and defeated the detachment under Gen. Braddock, did not exceed four hundred Indians and French together, instead of proceeding and endeavoring to recover some of the lost honor, he or- dered all the stores, ammunition, artillery and baggage, except what he reserved for immediate use, to be destroyed.(5) Some of the heavy cannon he buried, but have never been since found.(6) More than half of the small arms were lost.(7) This he did in order that he might have more horses to assist his flight towards the settlements.
Arriving at Fort Cumberland, he was met with requests from the Governors of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, that he would post his troops on the frontier, so as to afford some protection to the inhabi- tants ; but he continued his hasty march through the country, not think- ing himself safe until he arrived at Philadelphia. In their first march, from their landing, till they got beyond the settlements, the British troops had plundered and stripped the inhabitants, totally ruining some
(1) Gordon's History of Pennsylvania, p. 305.
(2) Franklin's Memoirs, Vol. I. p. 149.
(3) It is said that for some time after Braddock's defeat, the bears having feasted on the slain, thought they had a right to eat every human being with whom they met .- Doddridge's Notes, p. 21.
(4) Gov. Morris' letter to Gov. Shirley, in Prov. Rec. N. p. 135.
(5) Franklin's Memoirs, Vol. I, p. 149-150.
(6) Burd's Journal, in the office of the Secretary of the Commanwealth of Pennsylvania.
(7) Dunbar's Letter in Provincial Record, N. p. 202.
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poor families, besides insulting, abusing and confining the people, if they remonstrated.(1)
Gen. Braddock having died on the night of the 13th of June, the day after Col. Dunbar had commenced his retreat, he was buried in the e- road, for the purpose of concealing his body from the Indians. He wassa buried in his cloak, Col. Washington reading the funeral sermon overna his remains by torch-light.(2) The spot is still pointed out within a& p few yards of the present National road, and about a mile west of the en site of Fort Necessity at the Great Meadows. The French sent out a party as far as Dunbar's camp, and destroyed every thing that was left. Col. Washington being in very feeble health retired to Mount Vernon.(3)
No circumstantial account of this action has ever been published by the French, but Mr. Sparks, the editor of Washington's Letters, found a narrative in the Archives of the War Department, at Paris, apparent- ly drawn up by a person on the ground, from which he collected the following particulars :
-" M. de Contrecœur, the Commander of Fort Du Quesne, received intelligence of the arrival of General Braddock and the British regiments in Virginia. After his remove from Wills' Creek, French and Indian scouts were constantly abroad, who watched his motions, reported the progress of his march, and the route he was pursuing. His army was represented to consist of three thousand men. M. de Contrecœur was hesitating what measures to take, believing his small force wholly inade- quate to encounter so formidable an army, when M. de Beaujeu, a cap- tain in the French service, proposed to head a detachment of French and Indians, and meet the enemy in their march. The consent of the Indians was first to be obtained. A large body of them was then en- camped in the vicinity of the Fort, and M. de Beaujeu opened to them his plan, and requested their aid. This they at first declined, giving as a reason the superior force of the enemy, and the impossibility of suc-
(1) Franklin's Memoirs, Vol. 1, p. 150.
(2) Extract of a work entitled the Religious Opinions and character of Washington, by E. C. McQuire, 1836, p. 137 :
" The next year (1755) he (Washington) attended the fortunes of Gen. Brad- dock, as a volunteer aid-de-camp. The General being mortally wounded at the battle of Monongahela, died on the third night. He was buried in his cloak the same night in the road, to elude the search of the Indians. Wash- ington, on the testimony of an old soldier, read the funeral service over his remains, by the light of a torch. Faithful to his commander while he lived, he would not suffer him to want the customary rites of religion when dead. Though the probable pursuit of savages threatened, yet did bis humanity and sense of decency prevail, to gain for the fallen soldier the honor of Christian sepulture."
(3) Sparks' Washington, Vol. II, p. 476.
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,i cess. But at the pressing solicitation of M. de Beaujeu, they agreed to hold a council on the subject, and to talk with him again the next morn- ing. They still adhered to their first decision, and when M. de Beaujeu went out among them to inquire the result of their deliberation : they told him a second time that they could not go. This was a severe dis- appointment to M. de Beaujeu, who had set his heart upon the enter- prize, and was resolved to prosecute it. Being a man of great good nature, affability and ardor, and much beloved by the savages, he said to them : 'I am determined to go out and meet the enemy-what! will you suffer your father to go out alone ? I am sure we shall conquer.' With this spirited harangue, delivered in a manner that pleased the In- dians, and won upon their confidence, he subdued their unwillingness, and they agreed to accompany him."
It was now the 7th of July, and news came that the English were within six leagues of the Fort. This day and the next were spent in making preparations, and reconnoitering the ground for attack. Two other Captains, Dumas and Liguery, were joined with M. de. Beaujeu, and also four Lieutenants, six Ensigns and two Cadets. On the morn- ing of the 9th they were all in readiness, and began their march at an early hour. It seems to have been their first intention to make a stand at the ford, and annoy the English while crossing the river, and then retreat to the ambuscade on the side of the hill, where the contest actually commenced. The trees on the bank of the river afforded a good oppor- tunity to effect this manœuvre, in the Indian mode of warfare, since the artillery could be of little avail against an enemy, where every man was protected by a tree, and at the same time the English would be exposed to a point blank musket shot in fording the river. As it happened, how- ever, M. de Beaujeu and his party did not arrive in time to execute this part of the plan.
The English were preparing to cross the river, when the French and Indians reached the defiles on the rising ground, where they posted hemselves, and waited till Braddock's advanced columns came up. This was a signal for the attack, which was made at first in front, and repelled by so heavy a discharge from the British, that the Indians be- lieved it proceeded from artillery, and showed symptoms of wavering and retreat. At this moment M. de Beaujeu was killed, and the com- mand devolved on M. Dumas. He showed great presence of mind in rallying the Indians, and ordered his officers to lead them to the wings and attack the enemy in flank, while he with the French troops would maintain the position in front. This order was promptly obeyed, and
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the attack became general. The action was warm and severely contested for a short time ; but the English fought in the European method, firing at random, which had little effect in the woods, while the Indians fired from concealed places, took aim, and almost every shot brought down a man. The English columns soon got into confusion: the yell of the savages, with which the woods resounded, struck terror into the hearts of the soldiers, till at length they took to flight, and resisted all the en- deavors of their officers to restore any degree of order in their escape. The rout was complete, and the field of battle was left covered with the dead and wounded, and all the artillery, ammunition, provisions and baggage of the English army. The Indians gave themselves up to pil- lage, which prevented them from pursuing the English in their flight.
Such is the substance of the accounts written at the time, and sent home to their government.(1)
In addition to the foregoing, the following extract from the narrative of Colonel James Smith, who was then sixteen years of age, and who, after having been taken prisoner by a party of Indians, while engaged in making the road from Fort Loudon to the Youghiogheny, was con- fined at Fort Duquesne, will be read with interest. Colonel Smith was afterwards an officer in the war of the revolution, and a member of the Legislature of Kentucky. His capture is mentioned by Colonel Burd, in a letter to Governor Morris, dated the 5th of July 1755, and recorded in the Provincial Records of Pennsylvania. (2) Colonel Smith, after giving an account of the manner of General Braddock's march, received at the fort, says :
"Shortly after this, on the 9th day of July, 1755, in the morning, I heard a great stir in the fort. As I could then walk with a staff in my hand, I went out of the door, which was just by the wall of the fort, and stood upon the wall and viewed the Indians in a huddle before the gate, where were barrels of powder, bullets, and flints, and every one taking what suited ; I saw the Indians also march off in rank entire ; likewise the French Canadians, and some regulars. After viewing the Indians and French in different positions, I computed them to be about four hundred, and wondered that they attempted to go out against Brad- dock with so small a party. I was then in high hopes that they would soon fly before the British troops, and that General Braddock would take the fort and rescue me.
"'I remained anxious to know the event of this day ; and, in the
(1) Sparks' Washington, Vol. II. p. 472, 474.
(2) Provincial Records, N. p. 141.
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afternoon, I again observed a great noise and commotion in the fort, and though at that time I could not understand French, yet I found that it was the voice of triumph, and feared that they had received what I called bad news.
" I had observed some of the old country soldiers speak Dutch, (Ger- man) ; as I spoke Dutch, (German,) I went to one of them, and asked him what was the news ? He told me that a runner had just arrived, who said that Braddock would certainly be defeated; that the Indians and French had surrounded him, and were concealed behind trees and gullies, and kept a constant fire upon the English, and that they saw the English falling in heaps, and if they did not take the river, which was the only gap, and make their escape, there would not one be left alive before sun-down. Some time after this, I heard a number of scalp hal- loos, and saw a company of Indians and French coming in. I observed they had a great many bloody scalps, grenadiers' caps, British canteens, and bayonets, with them. They brought the news that Braddock was defeated. After that, another company came in, which appeared to be about one hundred, and chiefly Indians, and it seemed to me almost every one of this company was carrying scalps; after this came another company with a number of wagon horses, and also a great many scalps. Those that were coming in, and those that had arrived, kept a constant firing of small arms, and also the great guns in the fort, which were accompanied with the most hideous shouts and yells from all quarters ; so that it appeared to me as if the infernal regions had broken loose.
" About sun-down I beheld a small party coming in with about a dozen prisoners, stripped naked, with their hands tied behind their backs, and their faces and part of their bodies blackened ; these prisoners they burned to death on the bank of the Allegheny river, opposite to the fort. I stood on the fort wall until I beheld them begin to burn one of these men ; they had him tied to a stake, and kept touching him with fire brands, and red hot irons, and he screaming in the most doleful manner ; the Indians in the meantime yelling like infernal spirits. As this scene appeared too shocking for me to behold, I retired to my lodgings both sore and sorry."
Thus terminated the expedition of General Braddock. An army of twelve hundred chosen men, with a reserve to fall back upon, composed in part of veteran troops commanded by able and experienced officers, with a fine park of artillery, with a body of brave provincial soldiers, and a number of friendly Indians,* fell into an ambuscade and were
*At a council held at Philadelphia, August 15, 1755, Governor Morris said :
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more than half killed and wounded, and totally routed by a party of about four hundred Indians and a few Frenchmen, without artillery, and without being seen by the mass of the conquered.
The dead bodies of the slain were left unburied, and neglected until more than three years afterwards, when a detachment was sent from Fort Du Quesne, soon after the English took possession of it in 1758, to search for the relics of Braddock's army, and bury the remains of the dead. This service was performed. Sometimes the detachment found skeletons lying across the trunks of trees, sometimes skulls and bones scattered on the ground, and in other places they saw the blackness of ashes amidst the relics-the awful evidence of torture of the unfortunate wounded. A son of Sir Peter Halket, identified the remains of his father, by an artificial tooth, with those of a brother who was killed be- side him, and sickened and fainted at the sight.(1) Twenty-one years
(1) " After the taking of Fort Du Quesne, General Forbes resolved to search for the relics ot Braddock's army. As the European soldiers were not so well qualified to explore the forests, Captain West, the elder brother of Benjamin West, the painter, was appointed, with his company of American Sharp- shooters, to assist in the execution of his duty ; and a party of Indian warriors, who had returned to the British interests, were requested to conduct him to the places where the bones of the slain were likely to be found. In this solemn and affecting duty, several officers belonging to the 42d regiment ac- companied the detachment, and with them Major Sir Peter Halket, who had lost his father and a brother in the fatal destruction of the army. It might have been thought a hopeless task, that he should be able to discriminate their remains from the common relics of the soldiers ; but he was induced to think otherwise, as one of the Indian warriors assured him that he had seen an officer fall near a remarkable tree, which he thought he could still disco- ver; informing him, at the same time, that the incident was impressed on his memory by observing a young subaltern, who, in running to the officer's assistance, was also shot dead on his reaching the spot, and fell across the other's body. The Major had a mournful conviction in his own mind, that the two officers were his father and brother ; and indeed, it was chiefly owing to his anxiety on the subject, that this pious expedition, the second of the kind that history records, was undertaken.
"Captain West and his companions proceeded through the woods and along the banks of the river, towards the scene of battle. The Indians regarded the expedition as a religious service, and guided the troops with awe, and in pro- found silence. The soldiers were affected with sentiments not less serious ; and as they explored the bewildering labyrinths of those vast forests, their hearts were often melted with inexpressible sorrow ; for they frequently found skeletons lying across the trunks of fallen trees, a mournful proof to their imaginations that the men who sat there, had perished of hunger, in vainly attempting to find their way to the plantations. Sometimes their feelings were raised to the utmost pitch of horror by the sight of skulls and bones scattered on the ground-a certain indication that the bodies had been de- voured by wild beasts; and in other places they saw the blackness of ashes amidst the relics-the tremendous evidence of atrocious rites.
" At length they reached a turn of the river not far from the principal scene of destruction, and the Indian who remembered the death of the two officers,
" Brethren of the Six Nations,
You that are now here, viz: Scarrooyady, Cashunwayon, Kahuktodon, Attschechokatha, Kashwughdaniunto, and Dytoquario, fought under General Braddock, and behaved with spirit and valor during the engagement."
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after the melancholy event, J. Yeates, a Judge of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, visited the battle-field, and found many of the skulls and bones of those who fell there, still lying in profusion upon the ground unburied. The marks of cannon and musket balls were then seen on the trees, some of them twenty feet from the ground. He remarked, that the detachment in 1758, " buried the remains of more than four hundred and fifty ; many were afterwards interred, and many then re- mained unburied, as monuments of our shame."(1) It is now more than ninety years since the battle, and yet the vestiges of this fatal day remain. Grape shot are still cut out of the trees, and the ploughman still turns up the corroded shot, the flattened bullets, and the ornaments of the British troops.(2)
The shape of the ground upon which the battle was fought, was well chosen for the supprise and defeat of any number of European troops under such a general as Braddock, by an Indian force. Numbers would have only added to the dreadful disasters of the day. Braddock's advanced columns, after crossing the valley, extending for nearly half a mile from the margin of the Monongahela, began to move up a hill so uniform in its ascent, that it was little else than an inclined plane, of a somewhat crowning form. Down this inclined surface extended two ravines, beginning near together, about two hundred yards from the bot- tom of the hill, the space widening between them till they terminated in the valley below. On the elevation between these ravines, the army of General Braddock undertook to pass : aud in them, on both sides of
(1) Hazzard's Register of Pennsylvania, Vol. VI., p. 104.
(2) The writer has now before him several bullets, grape shot, buttons and buckles, found this year upon Braddock's field.
stopped; the detachment also halted. He then looked around in quest of some object which might recall, distinctly, his recollection of the ground, and suddenly darted into the woods. The soldiers rested their arms without speak- ing. A shrill cry was soon after heard, and the other guides made signs for the troops to follow them towards the spot from whence it came. In the course of a short time they reached the Indian warrior, who, by his cry, had announced to his companions that he had found the place where he was posted on the day of battle. As the troops approached, he pointed to the tree under which the officers had fallen. Captain West halted his men around the spot, and with Sir Peter Halket and the other officers, formed a circle, while the Indians removed the leaves which thickly covered the ground. The ske- letons were found, as the Indian expected. The officers having looked at them some time, the Major said, that as his father had an artificial tooth, he thought he might be able to ascertain if they were indeed his bones and those of his brother. The Indians were, therefore, ordered to remove the skeleton of the youth, and to bring to view that of the old officer. This was immediately done, and after a short examination, Major Halket exclaimed, . It is my father !' and fell back into the arms of his companions. The pioneers then dug a grave, and the bones being laid in together, a Highland plaid was spread over them, and they were interred with the customary honors."-Galt's Life of West, p. 82.
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the road to fort Du Quesne, the French and Indians were concealed and protected. At this day they are from eight to ten feet deep, and suf- ficient to contain at least a thousand men. At the time this battle was fought, the ground was covered with trees and tall grass, so that the ravines were entirely hidden from view, until they were approached within a few feet. Indeed, at the present day, although the forest has , disappeared and the place converted into pasture and cleared fields, these once Indian coverts are perceptible only at a very short distance. By this knowledge of the local peculiarities of the battle ground, the mys- tery, that the British troops conceived themselves to be contending with an invisible foe, is solved. Such was literally the fact. Their line of march was so located between the ravines, that their whole front, and both flanks, were exposed to the incessant fire of the enemy, who dis- charged their muskets over the edge of the ravines, being concealed by the trees and grass, and protected by an invincible barrier below the surface of the earth.
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